Last week, developer 343 Industries revealed that its sci-fi shooter Halo Infinite would no longer get large “Seasons” worth of free content updates. Instead, they would get smaller “Operations” content drops every six weeks or so. The first Operations update is coming on January 30.
This week, we got more info on what will be included in the first Operations update. The Halo Waypoint site revealed that a new multiplayer map, called Illusion, will be released on January 30.
The map was designed to have a look and feel that’s similar to the multiplayer maps made for the first game in the series, Halo: Combat Evolved. 343’s multiplayer designer, Cliff Schuldt, also mentions the map’s most interesting feature:
The main point of interest in this map is that its middle section has an active camouflage effect, so players who go into the center will turn invisible—we originally played around with having that area obscured by lots of smoke, but impacting the player’s vision in such a way just didn’t really translate to a fun time in gameplay.
In addition to the Illusion map, the first Operations update will include some new features and content for Halo Infinite’s Forge map editor. The big new edition is that the editor will now have “over 70 new structures pieces, primitives, accents, and decals” that are based on the game’s Covenant aliens. Once again, this is a kind of throwback to the first Halo games in the series.
There will also be a new Forge Mode Creator for mod makers. 343 says:
The Forge Mode Creator is a new functionality that lets players script modes in the Node Graph, then save, share, and play those experiences—just like you’d share a mode created in the Custom Game menu.
The editor will also be getting some improvements for its Forge AI Toolkit for single-player experiences, and there will be some quality-of-life additions as well.
Finally, for future Operations updates, 343 says the Forge editor will add a palette based on The Flood, which should be very popular, along with an alien-themed palette.